The Judgement of The Strong Man

Everybody Talks

      Early in the morning, about to announce our one month together. She's not wearing my sweatshirt. She walks past the seat I saved for her on the bus. The white plastic bag thumps and shivers in her spot. Slouched there, sympathizing for me because it knew what was coming.
      All the things I gave her - which wasn't a lot anyways - and a note.
      To simplify it, "Hey Andrew, you are too good to be dating someone like me. I talked with my dad about this, and we agreed that you deserve better than me. "
From M...
      The second attempt at a long-term relationship failed. The first was due to not being ready for a long-distance relationship. And now the second was because I was too good. It sucked but my dad and stepmom helped me through it.

      A while later, I was in Spanish class. It came too easy for me, yet I was a year behind in this class. I wouldn't be able to make it up to Spanish VI by the time I graduated. But I kept going, and I wanted to learn more Spanish. My family always speaks Spanish, and I don't like getting my grandparents' words translated. It made me feel less connected to them.
      One day, we got new seats, I was sat behind a bright purple / pink haired girl. She had glasses, and she was kinda cute. I kept my thoughts to myself, I just got out of a relationship, still trying to heal. We became distant friends, but she did this one thing that made me fall for her. I told myself I wasn't falling, and it worked for a while. She would lean back, and she would be looking at me upside down in her chair. I'd make her laugh from time to time. I told myself that if me and her were dating, I'd stop her right there and kiss her. It would be just like spider-man.
      I was a dreamer, I'd imagine every time I would be able to kiss her if we were dating and there weren't classmates around. But I left it that way, surely she doesn't like me back.
      She started telling me about her boyfriend... or maybe it was her ex now. She made it confusing at the time.
      One day, during Valentine's Day, she came up to me in the cafeteria. She taps my shoulder and asks, "Will you be my Valentine?". This couldn't be happening, she can't mean as in lovers. Surely, she was just trying to play with me for the day. Yeah, it's already been 4 months since the breakup, but I wasn't risking it.
      "What do you mean by that?" I foolishly ask. I knew I messed up. Before I could say anything else, she ran away. I tried to confront her in class, but she claims it was just a dare. And just like that, I knew she was just toying with me. She was incredibly beautiful in my eyes. I still pictured the normal things. Still picturing how great I could be to her.

      Fast forward 3 years, we're in 11th grade. We just went through a pandemic and constant work arounds in scheduling in every aspect of life. We haven't talked since 9th grade. Ironically, we're waiting outside of Spanish class. She wasn't in my Spanish class but she still sat next to me. Feelings rushed in again, I so badly wanted her to rest her head on my shoulder. She dyed her hair blue now.
      A few weeks passed after she got quarantined from COVID-19, and we started talking again. She found out I had a Facebook account, and we started talking on there. Then we got each other's snapchat account, that's when she told me that she liked me.
      I told her that I liked her back. We started asking each other lots of questions; favorite animal, favorite color, birthdays, and everything.
      I said something about her being my girlfriend, I was talking about a potential future. She mistook it as me saying me and her were already together. But just like that, she told me she wanted to be with me. She tried so hard to get me to ask her out, but we knew she was the one who asked me out.
      We did the same things every starting teenage couple would do. We held hands, called for hours, and talked about our future...
      We walked down the halls, there was this empty hallway, she stopped so we could talk. She didn't want to walk anymore and gave me little hints to give her a kiss. I had never kissed a girl before. The only time was either from tripping or because it was my mom's cheek.
      I inched closer to her, and she was against the wall. I wrapped my arms against her waist, I don't know why, I haven't seen anyone do that in my life. Maybe I saw it on TV. She puts her arms on my shoulders.
      "Can I?" I asked her in a whispered voice. She nods, and we smile and kiss. It was a nice first kiss. I didn't think it would be as quick as she made it. It felt more like a peck than a kiss, but what did I know.

      A bit of time passes, and we gradually kiss more often. I told her that our first kiss reminds me of this one song. She told me she had never heard it before, and so our playlist started. A list of songs that we relate to.

      "It started with a whisper, and that was when I kissed her." Everybody Talks - Neon Trees